Prominent agricultural economist Edify Hamukale who is also aspiring to be the ruling Patriotic Front’s candidate for the Mazabuka Central seat has unveiled his plans for the people of Mazabuka encapsulated in an elaborate preliminary manifesto made available today. Dr. Hamukale has revealed that it is now official that he intends to wrestle the Mazabuka seat from the incumbent Gary Nkombo if the ruling party gives him the honor of being its candidate in the 2016 polls. Hamukale has further revealed that his manifesto for the Mazabuka constituents is largely derived from the main Patriotic Front manifesto and that after the elections of 2016, the people of the area will have the benefit of being represented by not only a reliable and competent MP but that they shall also effectively deep into the broader developmental plans of the ruling PF that will bring a turn around to the area. As the fight for the Mazabuka seat becomes more heated in view of the 2016 elections, Hamukale is reported to be increasingly talking to the people on at the grass roots as evidenced from the growing support that he has attracted from the people some of whom are commending him for amplifying the challenges faced in the area. The aspiring member of parliament for Mazabuka Central Constituency is scheduled to give an exclusive interview on Mazabuka Radio Station’s Live Wire Program on Saturday 17th August 2013 from 11 hrs to 14 hrs and is expected to discuss key aspects of his Manifesto for the people of Mazabuka. Below is the preliminary manifesto
MAZABUKA CENTRAL CONSTITUENCY MANIFESTO
For 2016 to 2021
By: Edify Hamukale- Aspiring Member of Parliament
Introduction
This is an interim Manifesto for Mazabuka Central Parliamentary seat ahead of Presidential and General elections in 2016. The commonest causes of underperformance by Members of Parliament and underdevelopment in constituencies have been:
1. Lacking a constituency development plan being the major cause. In Zambia, the Sixth National Development Plan, Vision 2030 and Millennium Development Goals are all good instruments of development guidance but are not domesticated for utilization at constituency and ward levels where activities take place. Up to now they remain a wishful list of our desired destinations in each sector. There is so much aimlessness.
2. Lacking a constituency strategic plan which has a participatory input from the communities is another barrier to measurable progress or even failure. How can an MP know that he/she has failed to deliver or has delivered when there is no yard stick or standard against which to measure the outputs? In most cases, not even a basic Logical Framework (Log frame) is available. Members of parliament are so directionless and busy firefighting randomly. The MPs begin to attend to urgent issues and not the important issues. Without a strategic plan or its equivalent, it would be very difficult for any MP to borrow money for his/her area from outside the routinely allocated Constituency Development Fund and normal GRZ funding to ministries. For example, if you wish to borrow or apply for a constituency grant from NGOs, UN, World Bank and private donations, the funding sources want to see where you will use the money and how you will account for it.
I feel I would be the right candidate for Mazabuka central Constituency seat because of the following considerations:
1. I worked for the Zambia Sugar Company as a General Worker in the Factory parking one and 2 kg of sugar, at the cane yard, sweeping bagasse dust and later as a weigh bridge clerk where I weighed sugar cane and sugar trucks. Therefore I understand the problems of the poorer citizens of mazabuka because I was one of them
2. I worked for ZRC/ZAMBEEF at Chibote Farms (Mendham Farm) in Mazabuka as Farm Manager for 450 workers, 5000 cattle and thousands of hectares of arable land. Therefore I understand the challenges of the farming community and their workers in Mazabuka. My training is in agriculture and Mazabuka is largely a farming constituency.
3. Over 70% of the people in Chief Mwanachingwala are my relatives. The father to my Mother comes from Ko-Namulonga along Kafue flats (and was amongst those displaced by the sugar cane project long time ago) and the Mother to my Mother comes from Magoye in Chief Mwanchingwala. I am so local and Native.
4. My music plays on radio Mazabuka almost daily and because of that, most people have heard about me, know me personally and are my funs given the over 7000 attendance during my music live show in 2011 in Mazabuka. Only Sugar cane is more popular than me in Mazabuka because even children can call my name from a distance. I will be so easy to market
MANIFESTO IN DETAIL:
1. EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT
All Zambian children have a right to a free, compulsory, quality education, regardless of the wealth of their family or their place of residence. The paramount responsibility of Government to provide this education, in collaboration with parents and communities as may be appropriate.
Inadequate access to education opportunities at all levels; dilapidated and insufficient buildings; outdated curricula; a high teacher-learner ratio; lack of early childhood education facilities and the mushrooming of community schools; failure to deploy sufficient numbers of trained staff at all levels of the education system; de-motivation of the staff that there are; and a significant brain drain are all problems in the education sector in Mazabuka.
(a) Early Childhood Education
In order to increase access to and improve the quality of early childhood education, I will consider the following interventions if elected MP for Mazabuka Central:
• Provide and facilitate early childhood education centres and teachers in all local government wards in Mazabuka by working together with local communities and PTA e.g using homemade bricks;
• Encourage teacher training at diploma and degree levels in early childhood education to promote professionalism in the sector. There are too many untrained teachers
(b) Primary and Secondary Education
In order to raise the educational standards, I would consider to:
• Enhance free and compulsory education for all (that is from grade one to grade twelve), taking care to control the “unofficial” fee collections that have proliferated in the past.
• Lobby for adequate budgetary allocation on education to make free education a reality and further to cater for an appropriate expansion and up-grading of infrastructure and teaching resources;
• Lobby for Upgrading of all primary schools providing grades 1 to 4 to full primary schools (i.e., grade 1 to grade 7);
• Consider Upgrading community schools to fully fledged primary and secondary schools in consultation with the DEBS office;
• Lobby for Opening of two paths for grade eight pupils based on their grade seven performance to follow up to grade twelve. One will be for learners who will follow an academic path and the other for learners who will follow a technical path.
• Rehabilitate existing houses and construct decent institutional houses for teachers in rural schools. Some schools are understaffed because the DEBS has no houses to give to his/her newly recruited teachers.
• Encourage churches/missions to establish more learning institutions;
• Enhance the monitoring of education standards in both public and private schools through a professional inspectorate;
• Lobby for Increase in rural hardship allowance, double class allowance, extra duty allowance and other incentives for teachers and ensure timely payment of the said allowances on a monthly basis;
• Negotiate for Provision of government guaranteed mortgages or loans to enable teachers build or buy houses in areas of their choice in Mazabuka or anywhere in Zambia.
2. HEALTH SERVICES
Good health is an essential prerequisite for national development. The role of the health services is to promote health, prevent disease and injury, treat and rehabilitate the sick and injured.
(a) Health Services Financing
If elected Member of Parliament for Mazabuka central constituency, I would work with the Mazabuka community to achieve the following:
• Negotiate for an Increase the budgetary allocation to hospitals and clinics in Mazabuka at the Ministry of Health by first consulting the local mazabuka medical staff
• Promote public-private partnerships in the financing of health services;
• Facilitate Provision of basic health care based on need and not ability to pay;
• Upgrade some clinics into hospitals in Mazabuka in consultation with the central Government, the medical staff in mazabuka and traditional leaders in order to decongest the main district hospital.
(b) Service Provision
• Provide an Essential Health Package for each level of health care;
• Rehabilitate, fully equip and provide adequate staff to all levels of health care;
• Establish an Intensive Care Unit that will be fully equipped and staffed for emergencies and specialized cases at Mazabuka District Hospital to drastically reduce the need for referring patients abroad;
• Scale up effective interventions for the prevention and management of HIV and AIDS, Malaria, TB, and the screening for cancer of the cervix, breast and the prostate;
• Establish a strong referral system for complicated cases, such as emergency obstetric patients;
• Adopt a system of inviting specialists from abroad for complicated cases in order to reduce the cost of referring patients abroad;
(c) Medicines and Technology
• Increasing availability of essential medicines like ARV’s, anti-malarials, antibiotics and commodities for emergency obstetric care;
• Rationalize the Procurement and Supply chain for medicines and medical commodities to eliminate abuse and promote transparency;
3. AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT
(a) Crop Diversification
In Mazabuka, soils, temperatures and rainfall patterns naturally differ from place to place. There are areas with perfect amounts of rainfall for growing even the most rain-hungry crops while at the same time there are drier areas that are suitable for certain crops with a low water requirement. There are also very wet areas including flood plains on which “winter” crops can be grown as the water recedes after the rains; and there are many small and larger rivers offering opportunities for irrigation on the uplands. All this makes Mazabuka as a whole almost ideal for the growing of many different crop plants in various places. These crops include staple crops such as cassava, sweet potato, maize, bulrush and finger millet, wheat, paddy rice, cane sugar and sorghum. Others are oilseeds and legumes such as sunflower, cashew nuts, groundnuts of confectionary standard and many kinds of beans including soya. In addition there are crops for industrial processing and export which include arabica coffee, two kinds of tobacco, namely – barley and Virginia – and cotton.
In addition there are many types of fruit and vegetable that thrive in Mazabuka. There are also wild foods which are found in some parts of the district. Mushrooms, including a relative of the exotic “caesar mushroom” of Europe and North America (known locally as Ndyu and bowa nganda), abound in season.
In order to address and correct the mono-crop syndrome if elected Member of Parlaiment, I would:
• Work for a better balance of crops grown by small farmers. It has been seen that, when conditions are right, Zambia’s small farmers can produce many crops in quantity and of high quality, including for export.
• Lobby for Subsidizing of agriculture, especially small-scale farming;
• Encourage farmers in remote areas to focus their cash cropping on high value commodities like tobacco and cotton, apart from growing some food for domestic consumption
• Promote out-grower programs in all cash crops;
• Introduce programmes for optimum utilization of flood plains and wetland areas for the production of non-traditional cash crops such as rice and sugar cane;
(b) Agricultural governance
Here, I would help
• Depoliticize the farmer support programme by involving traditional authorities through the District Chiefs’ Councils and Ward Village Councils;
• In consultation with traditional authorities introduce legislation to ensure security of land tenure in customary areas.
(e) Livestock
Mazabuka has huge opportunities in livestock, most particularly in beef production.
In order to help boost the livestock subsector, I would suggest to:
• Undertake a baseline study and subsequent annual livestock audits for planning purposes;
• Undertake a livestock restocking programme coupled with appropriate training for cattle farmers;
• Prioritize dipping, vaccination and treatment of diseases of all domestic animals;
• Rehabilitate existing and construct new dip tanks and make cattle dipping compulsory in order to ensure that the discipline that is implied on the actions of farmers and traders – regarding stock movements or regular dipping is enforced and becomes routine, as in past years;
• Carry out regular vaccinations and other livestock disease control programmes
• Assess the methods of managing grazing land for better yield of meat per hectare
• Promote small livestock development– involving e.g. pigs, goats, poultry- through intensive vaccination programmes against various small livestock diseases;
• Upgrade training and deploy adequate numbers of front line veterinary extension officers.
(f) Fisheries Development
The biggest problem with wild fisheries in Zambia is lack of policing and thus a “tragedy of the commons” of overfishing giving rise to rapid depletion of the fish population and fish species to where it cannot recover its full glory. This has led to high poverty levels and diminished household food security.
In order to redress the problems, I would suggest to:
• Help Streamline the Department of Fisheries in order for it to adequately protect and increase fish stocks and fish species in our rivers and lakes;
• Enforce the SADC Protocol on Fisheries in collaboration with other member states;
• Promote commercial and small holder aquaculture (fish farming).
(c) Water Resources Development
Mazabuka has abundant surface and underground water bodies which have not been harnessed for national development.
In order to redress this and promote irrigation it would be best to:
• Invest in appropriate technology to ensure that water is harnessed and delivered on an ecologically sustainable basis to drier lands that have the highest potential for large and small-scale irrigation projects;
• Promote the tapping of underground water and construction of dams on streams and rivers for agricultural use;
• Construct canals and dams to harvest run-off water for agricultural use.
4. LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND HOUSING DEVELOPMENT
In order to establish a system of local government which will promote local economic development, improved delivery of essential infrastructure and services through local self-government, it would make sense to:
• Help Increase the budgetary allocation to councils;
• Help Disburse council grants efficiently taking into account the population increase and the level and standard of infrastructure development in Mazabuka district;
• Give full political support to the creation of realistic valuation rolls, and the charging of fair levels of land rates;
• Devise an appropriate formula for sharing national taxes collected within the jurisdiction of the local authority in order to strengthen its revenue base.
• Ensure improved access to public water supplies and sewage facilities by the urban and peri-urban residents. Nakambala Market is too dirty and will be developed into a modern market.
• Subsidize water pricing for the vulnerable households;
• Strengthen institutional capacity and infrastructure construction and maintenance in order to eradicate seasonal outbreaks of cholera in urban areas as well as rural areas such as high-density fishing zones e.g Shimungalu
• Introduce a social housing scheme that will empower councils to construct low cost houses from government guaranteed loans;
• Upgrade squatter settlements into statutory and improvement areas in order to improve the living standards of the inhabitants;
• Place deliberate emphasis on the development of infrastructure projects using labour intensive techniques in rural areas in order to create employment opportunities for the rural population through regular income earnings;
• Introduce Ward Village Councils, District Chiefs Councils and Provincial Chiefs Councils to ensure a link in the public service governance system below the District Councils and active involvement of the traditional authorities in the public governance system;
• Provide these institutions with adequate professional advisory services to ensure good land use planning and other services;
5. SOCIAL PROTECTION
Many Zambians have experienced long term chronic poverty, which has denied vulnerable groups in general and women and children in particular, a chance to grow and/or reach their full potential. Consequently, this has undermined the social and economic development of many citizens.
Specific measures to be included are that:
• The poorest families will be helped in accessing education and health, to ensure that they and their children are not excluded from basic services;
• Very vulnerable families will be helped into self-reliance through the delivery of input packs in rural areas, and skills training / micro business development activities in urban areas;
• People affected by unforeseen natural disasters or shocks will be supported with programmes to support immediate survival, and to restore and strengthen livelihoods ;
• Development of a package of life-cycle based benefits, including the development of age-based grants to address widespread poverty, deprivation and suffering;
To support social protection programmes, community development and social welfare services will empower vulnerable groups in communities both in rural and urban areas. Without support at community level, this was characterized by rising illiteracy rates, wide-spread unemployment, poor living conditions, high infant and maternal mortality rates, malnutrition, destitution and crime.
To redress this situation, the following will make sense:
• Increase budgetary allocation to the sector in line with its increased responsibilities;
• Rehabilitate and provide community development infrastructure, such as welfare centres, community libraries and recreational facilities.
• Deploy qualified staff and upgrade skills of existing staff through in-service training programmes;
• Re-introduce literacy and nutrition programmes in low income communities;
• Enhance the participation of the church and non-governmental organizations in the provision of community development and social welfare services.
6. PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES INSTITUTIONAL REFORMS
Disability and poverty are closely linked in a cycle of exclusion and marginalization. Exclusion from education leads to exclusion from labour markets and this in turn leads to greater poverty and dependency on others for income and support.
In order to promote the role and welfare of persons with disabilities I would:
• Carry out a baseline study of persons with disabilities so as to determine the nature and prevalence of disabilities in Mazabuka
• Help Introduce legislation in order to guarantee the right to free, appropriate education and provide the individuals a disabled learners’ allowance at school, college, and university;
• Establish a district vocational rehabilitation centre without entry qualification restrictions in order to provide skills training programmes so as to help persons with disabilities enter the labour market or be self employed;
• Help Streamline the Zambia Agency of Disabled Persons and fund it in order for the Agency to expand its existing resettlement centres and open at least one in Mazabuka district
• Provide literacy skills alongside vocational skills to persons with disabilities in vocational rehabilitation programmes;
• Provide persons with disabilities free access to government health services;
• Provide appropriate sports and recreational facilities;
• Strictly enforce legislation on a barrier free environment dealing with accessibility for persons with disabilities.
7. SOCIAL SECURITY REFORMS
The social security system has left the majority of workers destitute on retirement. This is due to unrealistic and inadequate retirement packages which are often overtaken by inflation and the ever rising cost of living. This is further compounded by the fact that pensioners and retirees are not paid their benefits on time, or never paid at all.
In order to redress this I will endeavor to:
• Help Introduce reforms so as to ensure efficiency and a secure post-employment life for all retired employees and their families;
• Use the social security schemes to advance loans to local authorities for investment in low and medium cost housing;
• Help Pay pension arrears to all retired employees within 24 months in government;
• Help to Decentralize and ensure prompt payments of terminal benefits to retirees through established outlets in districts;
• Help Introduce a formula for maintaining the value of the annuity by taking into account annual inflation;
• Help review all the relevant pieces of legislation governing social security schemes.
8. WOMEN IN SOCIO- ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND GENDER
In order to redress this I will endeavour to:
• Help Domesticate international protocols relating to women and gender in development so as to enhance representation of women in decision making;
• Help Enhance educational opportunities and promote the rights of the girl child, particularly in removing the impediments that inhibit their progression at present;
• Introduce programmes to enhance women’s participation in national development in collaboration with relevant non-governmental organizations,;
• Help Eradicate all forms of discrimination against women including the creation of equal employment opportunities for men and women
9. YOUTHS IN SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
The majority of the Zambian youths have remained unemployed, ill-educated and without any formal skills to enable them to earn a living in society and contribute to national development. For the educated youths there are limited or no opportunities for employment.
In order to incorporate the youths in national development I will endeavour to:
• Help Expand educational facilities and vocational training to absorb all school leavers;
• Collaborate with industry to provide learnership/apprenticeship practical training ;
• Integrate the youths in leadership and decision making;
• Introduce district vocational training centres;
• Establish a micro credit financing facility so as to lend to established district vocational training centres and small scale enterprises ( including CDF and CEEC funds)
• Facilitate access to markets through procurement opportunities for goods and services;
10. ARTS AND CULTURE DEVELOPMENT
This is now a government ministry just to emphasize how important it is.
In order to promote arts and culture for national development I will endeavor to:
• Establish an arts and cultural Centre in Mazabuka
• Promote research in the fields of arts and culture;
• Encourage public and private investment in the development of arts and culture infrastructure in town and villages;
• Support visual and performing artists by incorporating them in government programs
• Protect intellectual property
• Help young musicians in Mazabuka to access and own good musical instrumensts and receive training in playing them. Too many banjos and other humiliating musical instruments in southern province
11. SPORTS AND RECREATION DEVELOPMENT
Sports and recreation help to shape the fabric of the nation in that it contributes to the building of the physical and mental faculties of citizens. It also imbues values of teamwork, discipline and builds character – all of which are important for national development and esteem.
In order to promote sports and recreation, I will endeavor to:
• Help Increase budgetary allocation for the construction, rehabilitation and upgrading of sports and recreation infrastructure, particularly in schools and in communities;
• Help Introduce fiscal incentives for private investment in the development of sports and recreation infrastructure;
• Promote manufacture of sports equipment locally;
• Introduce the awarding of sports scholarships and annual awards by educational institutions to deserving talented sportsmen and women;
12. INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
Infrastructure (defined as Road, rail, Air and water transport, telecommunications, energy, education and health services, water supply and sanitation facilities, public buildings and housing) is a key to realizing sustainable economic development. The unmet demand for social and physical infrastructure to support the delivery of housing, transport, energy, water services and to overcome the deficiency of food limits economic opportunity and is therefore a major barrier to the achievement of meaningful national development.
In order to redress this situation, I will endeavor to:
• Help Rehabilitate and upgrade the existing road network including feeder roads in all wards to prescribed standards;
• Help Establish road maintenance camps on major roads throughout the country;
• Promote employment creation through the use of labour intensive technologies and the use of local resources;
• Rehabilitate and upgrade existing harbors and canals e. shimungalu
• Help Establish micro credit financing for small scale Zambian contractors, and to ensure that there are compensatory measures in place to level the playing field between foreign contractors, especially those who are receiving financing and other subsidies from their countries of origin;
13. TOURISM DEVELOPMENT
A tourism industry based on a well designed government policy can be a driving force in the economic development of a country. It can contribute to the increase in the GDP per capita within a short period of time and contribute to employment creation and opportunities.
These include:
(a) Infrastructure that is either poor or in the wrong place;
(b) Uneconomical routes;
(c) Poor marketing of Zambia as a tourist destination of choice;
(d) Unstable exchange rates and other cost factors leading to the cost of a bed night in Zambia being the highest in the Southern African region.
(e) Poaching of game animals and destruction of habitat
The Zambia Wildlife Authority in its current form under the Zambia Wildlife Act of 1998 has been extorting exorbitant fees from tourism operators and has also not been honouring its financial obligations of sharing fees with local communities in the Game Management Areas.
In order to redress the above problems, I will endeavor to:
• Help Review the tourism industry policy so as to make investment in the sector attractive and profitable to both local and foreign investors;
• Ensure that growth in resource based tourism is environmentally sustainable and should be accessible to future generations;
• Enhance the employment of “village scouts” to ensure rural employment opportunities and incomes;
• Reject relationships based on charity between tourism operators and communities as a basis for revenue transfers at local level, providing in law for rights and entitlements for community revenue from all wildlife based tourism;
• Promote well targeted government investment in infrastructure development and hence open up new tourist sites in the country;
• Establish collaborations with the private sector to introduce economic routes by road and air to viable tourist destinations;
• Promote cultural and ethno-tourism in order to create job opportunities in the rural areas;
• Collaborate with the private sector so as to enhance the marketing of the sector locally and internationally;
• Introduce regulations to address the human-animal conflict in Game Management Areas so as to protect wildlife and local communities;
• Help Introduce regulations to address the human-animal conflict in Game Management Areas so as to protect wildlife and local communities;
• Introduce new legislation to protect communities and citizens from unfair alienation of land in Game Management Areas, recognizing that the provisions of the Lands Act of 1995 are inadequate to deal with.
14. LANDS DEVELOPMENT
Land is critical to a country’s social and economic development and Zambia is no exception to this principle. After the enactment of the Lands Act of 1995 which was a drastic land reform, following the repeal of the Land (Conversion of Titles) Act of 1975, land is either State (leasehold) or Customary land.
(a) Customary Land
Customary land makes up about 90% of all land in the country. Not being on formal title, this has prevented the occupants from using such land as security for accessing formal credit financing and also leaves them with undefined rights to guarantee security of tenure. Because land occupancy can be arbitrarily terminated by headmen or chiefs (though the principle of usufruct is normally observed) occupants are discouraged from creating any capital improvements on the land, including taking measures to permanently enhance or conserve soil structure or fertility.
(b) State Land (leasehold tenure)
State land which constitutes about 10% of the total land in Zambia is inadequate especially in urban and peri-urban areas.
To redress these problems and in order to accelerate social and economic development , I will endeavor to:
• Help Promote security of tenure for customary land in the rural areas by introducing land record cards to define the rights of occupants;
• Prevent displacement of local communities by the urban elite or foreign investors in rural areas;
• Promote good governance, decentralization and transparency in land administration;
• Eradicate inequalities amongst interested groups in gaining access to land in order to cater for the less privileged in Mazabuka Constituency;
• Undertake a land audit in order to plan for sustainable use of land resources for agriculture, residential, commercial and industrial development;
• Regularize ownership of untitled properties in towns and cities
15. ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT
The environmental situation in Zambia has been characterized by loss of wildlife, deforestation, land degradation and urban water and air pollution due to the weak enforcement of the provisions of the Environmental Protection and Pollution Control Act.
This situation has only become worse with the availability of soft money and invitations to international conferences on climate change. Climate change is becoming the supposed cause of Zambia’s degraded environment, drawing attention away from the failures of “good housekeeping” that is needed, come climate change or not.
In order to redress the problems, I will endeavor to:
• Help Promote decentralization and local community participation in collaboration with the private sector to underpin sustainable management of natural resources;
• Help Amend and harmonies all pieces of legislation governing environmental policy to reduce inter-sectoral conflicts in environmental management;
• Improve the conservation and management of forest reserves;
• Encourage public private partnerships in the management of watersheds on a sustainable basis;
• Control illegal hunting of wildlife by creating employment opportunities in rural areas both to provide alternative employment opportunities and by employing “poachers turned gamekeepers” in the form of village scouts;
• Control deforestation through sustainable agricultural methods by both commercial and small scale farmers;
• Promote and invest in research to develop alternative sources of energy for domestic use so as to control deforestation;
• Domesticate international conventions on climate change.
16. LABOUR AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS REFORMS
The conditions of service for Zambian workers have for years been declining in tandem with the economy.
I will help
• Protect domestic workers and general workers from abuse
• Ensure workers get their benefits on time
• Protect employees from unlawful and meditated dismissals